WOYWW #269 Piles and more Piles

Hi welcome to this week's mess, If you'd like to play along and show us what you are playing with the link up for this blog hop starts at Julia's blog seen here. 

as dark as this is would you believe there are 3 ott lights shining on this table and an over head ceiling light too. I am seeing the piles start creeping onto the cutting mat so, this is usually my cue to start putting more things away. which so far so good, after each sample is done the stamps are cleaned and most the tools and such have been put away. its the scraps that do me in, for a while I will dig through them then they become too messy and need dealt with.

so, since last week. I still do not have an entire Penny Black background cut from its interlocking circles die, but I did receive happy mail from My Favorite Things and I got the mini chicken wire background die finally and it cuts just fine. YAY. finally dug that wordy stencil out to play with I got a while ago now and so, this is something #2 ( #1 was so ugly it got tossed already) and yes, I know paper is double sided. eventually I will figure out a look for it I like. The crackle rock candy distress paint did not do what I wanted it to do in my head either so that bottle has been put away now and I'm down to the ranger crackle accents to see what it will do. ( eventually ) still doing Dirty samples so, I can have more time to leave love in the gallery while it's live. 

this particular round I decided to try taping the stencil to the mat and trace around the inside with a black fine tip sharpie marker over the paint (that was over the dylusions spray) so, either it was a dying sharpie or it doesn't like paint. I ended up hauling this in the house after and tracing around it all with an Micron Pen and that was much better for the definition with the blacks. 

this particular stencil is made by a company called the crafters workshop, its an 6" version. ( they also make 12" versions) and the line is called Zenspirations. hope this helps. :) 

Crackled Sympathy

a closer look. the sentiment is from Judi Kins and the crackle embossing folder is from Darice. I have been making dirty samples every day and it surprised me to see I have not even looked at my own blog in the last week. ( got some emails of comments from the last week and it surprised me, to find this in the waiting to be uploaded folder still) 

This was done inspired by last weeks featured stamper Karren's beautiful card seen here. So, one of the changes I made was to make the 4th panel skinnier and add it to the mat and changed the shapes of those. this is A-7 in real life the colors of ink on the cardstock are Vintage photo, rusty hinge, forest moss and peeled paint. I totally Love the colors on Karren's card and want to try something deeper one of these days. ( if I remember and figure it out) :) the enamel brad has an hourglass on it.

I'm sorry this has been so quiet in here this week but, the good news is there are only 4 more sleeps until dare to get dirty starts on Saturday. This is done as a week long thank-you for all the fan club members of SplitcoastStampers and you find out about how/why to join the fan club here. the cost of this is less than a magazine subscription and it supports this site that does so much for the stamping community online. You can also find this years "permission slip" to print off and hang on your icebox and give to your family members.
I am hosting one of the challenges and everyone has been working hard behind the scene's to make this the biggest -best-est Dare to get Dirty yet.  I really hope to see you play along with us.

WOYWW #268

This weeks mess, I have mostly been making dirty samples for the Dare to get Dirty challenges which open in what 9 more sleeps? ( something like that ) so, you can see some evidence of that and some things tossed to the sides as I was working on a couple of challenge cards last weekend. the pile making has commenced. If you would like to show us what you are pushing around on your desk you can find the link up to this blog hop at Julia's blog where it starts at. 

on the right is an stencil from Prima that followed me home that I have not played with yet and on the left is an Penny Black die that I am still fighting ( even with wax paper and multiple passes through the big shot) to get an entire sheet of cut at the same time, near that is some left over cheese cloth I had stained antique linen last weekend. and the usual piles of scraps and such. 

A closer look, the crackle things have come out ( paint and ranger something ) because, off to the right is a tag that had some of that ( bleep bleep) "crackle" embossing paste... well I think this is now the third time I have attempted to use the crackle paste in which I have no cracks visible when it dries. now, the embossing paste says you have to use the black paste first then go over with the crackle and of course my black embossing paste turned into a brick so I tossed it and all the colored pastes that I had that did the same thing. so, I was thinking since this tag was originally stained a dark green color it would be "close enough" to black under the crackle. no dice.

so, sooner or later I am just going to try the other forms of "crackle stuff" because, I want the texture on something in my head and this will maybe put that thought in my head If I have to push the bottles out of the way every so often. 

if there were no minute like the last minute of course nothing would get done ever... (Wednesday July 23 is my stepdad's birthday...) so, of course this was just done simply and quickly tuesday evening. and no, he doesn't live close enough to get it hand delivered. It's A-6 in real life, the image is from Northwoods and the sentiment is from Stampin'Up. both are stamped with Versafine. The image is on some smooth white and the base is textured Bazzill that went through the score board a few times leaving a spot for the sentiment because, there was a challenge called "And She Scores..." the other day and I happened to remember that because, it made me laugh.

Sandy Toes

Today the inspiration challenge is to find something inside country curtains and funnily enough, I found something that kinda goes with the paint chips hanging on the wall in the hall bath. In the "natural" color so, there is no "blue" in the inspiration photo but, the texture of the lace made me think of cheesecloth so, that is how this started with the cheesecloth and the scrap of watercolor paper being dyed with some antique linen stain and tap water. the edges of the die cut (Tim Holtz for sizzix the mini sized one) and the stamped pieces have some vintage photo distress ink sponged on. 

all the stamps are from the Gina k designs gifts from the sea set by Melanie Muenchinger. stamped with some Versafine vintage sepia ink as was the Sanded background from SU. The metal frame & brads are from SU but, I dont save packaging so, I don't know the real name of them but, what ever they use for paint... it does not like to stick to gluedots at all. and I did not want the prongs of the brads going through the card front so, this is on there tentatively with gluedots and pop dots under the sentiment. The cardbase is ocean tide (think maybe PTI) and the liner is primitive cream from MFT. this one is A-7 in real life. and that bitty star fish on the diecut sand dollar. ( it's real ) I've had it forever and don't remember where I got it anymore. Sometime not too long ago I think I seen a tutorial or something that Dina made that used flower soft for the sand and so (found it here), after I had daubed some snow-tex on this here and there and decided it was too flat and too white I remembered to look at the box of flower soft I have and funnily enough one of them is named "Sand" so, it was patted onto daubed on diamond glaze glue. 

{Blurry sorry its from my phone shot} Paint chips I found at homedepot this morning that are hanging on the wall in that bathroom. thinking about changing the frame of that mirror to a dark brown and the walls to one of the blue's and then maybe the trim as one of the grey driftwood type colors. ( not sure yet)

Patched Mix Tag

So, at work today I seen that the mix challenge was to use patches of backgrounds for instance with some sewing and that was all I remembered about the challenge. I made my self a pile of patches and found 3 that looked good together and fit along the side of this tag. left space under the sides to run them through the sewing machine but, found these photo corners hiding in the pile and liked them. So, then I went and read the challenge again. ( it need's 4 patches and is supposed to represent something in your life this last little while) well... I am thinking the sentiment reflects the last years "stuff" now, the question is, do the book page butterflies count as "patches" 

This is an size 8 shipping tag stained with distress stain then sprayed with dylusions white linen ink. the bottom patch is vellum with alcohol inks on it, the middle patch is heavily sprayed watercolor papers and the top patch is a very old piece of photo printer paper that was turned into "faux" linen. The sentiment's from the tim holtz words for for thoughts set, three words were done a third time on a scrap of pink cardstock and the top one has real staples over the stamped ones. the button is vintage ( wood ) the pink burlap thread is from May Arts and the seambinding is from SU Cherry cobler. The sequins have some stickles in them. 

From Last weekend

This was pretty much done with the same colors, textures, papers etc. from Friday's card san's wings and then the addition of the ruffle, tag changed the sentiment.

It was 5" square in real life, cannot measure it though, popped it in the mail for J as soon as I finished it Saturday am. 

The Inspiration challenge on saturday lead to a blog that does color combo's for brides. and this was the post I settled on. I think I tweaked the colors a little during the day while I was thinking about it. 

The embossing was done on some darice coredinations vintage photo cardstock with an we r memory keepers folder and sanded. the wood veneer butterflies were stained. the happy birthday banner is an SU sentiment. the blue floral base pp has like clear embossing over the whole sheet so its an textural fun piece to touch. The lace is vintage. 

This was done in honor of this weeks featured stampers gallery and I chose this one from Heather. 

the changes I made were to switch the bloom from an solid image to one that needed colored and I white washed it with some acrylic paint then distress inks watercolored over that. the ric rac is vintage. the side embossing are those skinny little border ones and they warped this panel pretty badly to do this so there are a lot of glue dots under this.  

A Textured Heart

The Ways to use it challenge this week is to use 3 kinds of textures on the project... So, I am thinking I missed it by one. unless visual texture counts besides lumps and bumps. 

I had happy mail today when I got home from work in the form of a filled envelope from Our Daily Bread designs, so of course it had to be inked and cut. The heart is the one in the Heart and Soul set and honestly I bought the large stand alone heart stamp too ( same flag design) they are not that much different scale wise as I had imagined them to be. who knows if they list the stamp sizes on the site I tend to hardly pay attention to that stuff when the impulse thing hits. Because, I had come across this beauty in the gallery when I was surfing earlier in the week and that knocked me right off the yes, I will get it someday fence... 

The heart was colored direct to rubber with the SU watercolor crayons in Ruby Red, Not Quite Navy & Creamy Carmel. then misted with water. so, it did bleed a little but, not in an unrecognizable way. and then the sentiment was over stamped with versafine after that dried. I tapped some snow-tex on the edges of this with an glue type brush. ( the snow-tex did wash off the brush) but, this was the first time I had opened that and was not sure what the clean up would be like so, I did use a disposable brush. This was diecut with a die from the Ornate Hearts die set and the edges were inked with creamy brown fluid chalk. there is also some stardust gelly roll pen on this part. 

The background started with the SU sanded background being stamped with Creamy brown fluid chalk ink then this was sprayed with some Goosebumps. this started taking forever to dry so, patience is not my virtue and I cooked it with the heat gun. ( watched it bubble up etc etc) and did let it sit for a few minutes to further dry. the distress inks were color dusted over the top of this and then I misted a paper towel with water and wiped the ink off the top of the goosebumps textures. the wings were die cut from a scrap of textured bazzill using the Angel Wings set and those edges are also inked with creamy brown chalk. This is A-7 in real life. 

From Nancy's gallery

This week Nancy is the featured stamper and from her gallery I was really torn between this and these. so, these are a hodgepodge from both. they were all done from scraps so the off the top of my head things I remember are that the stocking, ornament and lace border are Sizzix dies, the tree is from Taylored Expressions ( trim a tree ) the snowflake is from Impression Obsession. 

Vintage Holly to honor Karen

On monday the clean and simple challenge was to CASE something from Karen Dunbrook's gallery and I finally narrowed it down to this gorgeous card and then spent a lot of time digging through leaf stamps trying to find one with multiple leaves haha. and then I finally realized there might be something in the Christmas stamps boxes and I found this one. ( Penny Black vintage holly ) 

The changes I made were ( the stamps) and this is a little wide than A-2 in real life its 4 1/2" X 5" with the ribbon has been moved down to the popped up panel and the sentiment (Verve stamps) was tied onto that. 

A Catch Up Post

This is the card I sent to J that he should have received it around Independence day but, I don't know at this point if he has, the last letter I received he had said he had only received the very first letter I sent which turns out went to the wrong platoon. the rays are an Tim Holtz embossing folder used as a stamp. the sentiment is from Define your life.  

This is the first attempt at using this set that was gifted to me. pretty simple and flat.

Thinking to send this one to J during Marine week so he get's it before we get there for his graduation. this gal is from the same Unity kit as the dresses below. one of the heart balloons is up on pop dots. 

This was done a long time ago when Peggy was featured stamper. 

I could not remember the name of the SU stamp to the left but, that is where the sentiment came from ( I think this was an 9/11 fundraiser type stamp but, I don't remember anymore) the old Flag background is from our daily bread designs done with watercolor crayons, the band of solidiers is from deep red. 

this is that faux resist background, ( crumpled wax paper was tapped onto the card front with versamark and then tan embossing powder was heated on that and then colors were added over the top and wiped off the embossing powder) its way cooler in person than in this shot. 

a while back there was a young man collecting cards for a hospital where he receives treatments and I struggle with "kid" cards a great deal but, this was done hoping the colors were cheerful. and the one below was done thinking that maybe there were days the nurses needed Happy Cards! 

This is an example of what works better in your head does not always translate. I wanted all the skirts to layer, but, the bow being an sunken crater looks awful. seriously you would not wear this in reality.

I still like the idea of it but, since there is nothing in the stamp design to tuck the layers under it does not work with paper and pop dots. like this, I am thinking since then of pulling it apart, cutting off the top dress and wrapping a gauzy flowing sheer something soft maybe cheesecloth something with drape to it around the middle of that dress. cheesecloth would probably be awesome as a peeking out texture too. so this is one of those thinking things. 

from an Unity kit of the month. ( have to look up which month ( recently ) a lot of these were made in June and I just never got around to posting them here.

What's on Your workdesk? Wednesday #266

Happy Wednesday :) welcome to the mess. If you' like to see what other people are playing with at the moment head over to Julia's blog and find the links. So, one of the challenges at Splitcoaststampers this monday was to color the top of something dry embossed ( not inked the folder) so, this was done tuesday night messing around. towards the back is an Penny Black holly hock stamp that I have been thinking about. ( I have the retired PSX one so no, I did not "need" another flower stamp but, they follow me home sometimes) also is some crumpled wax paper that has versafine on it from a tech. challenge from a week ago. ( I am planning to do some more of those backgrounds so, I have not tossed it yet so, I can remember that) 

the distress markers were just scribbled on the popped up parts then were scribbled over the top of that with some gold gelly roll pen. there are actually two layers of the butterfly diecut on here the bottom is polka-dot printed papers that were inked with some chalk on the edges of the sides. the top paper is handmade with some flecks of yellow gold here and there in it. so, the parts that look like straw probably are. 

this tag is actually large enough that I did not have to mask off the Tim Holtz stencil on this, this tag is that much larger than the stencil in real life. picked it up in a stamp store years ago so no mfg info. 

Embossed Copper Leaves

These were the scraps, and they caught my attention when I finished putting the flower below together. I've had this sentiment sitting on the table for a while now waiting to be used. They are actually petals from the Christmas Pride ( poinsettia ) stamp heat embossed with Aged Spice enamel on vellum.

This is A-7 in real life, the green panel is textured die cuts with an view and the copper is some shimmery stardream. The lace is vintage and the trim is from May Arts. 

the bling brad is unknown. there are pop dots under it so the light can go through the petals. 

The copper texture is from Provo Craft, the ribbon is unknown, the sentiment is also from Penny Black called Christmas Flourish on the green handmade paper. this one is 6" square in real life. 

Poppy Fields

That is an Darice embossing folder called poppy fields. ran it through on some watercolor paper and scribbled some Distress and Nick Bantock inks on it with an aqua brush. the sentiment is from an SU set called Yippee Skippee! 

The base is Soft Sky and this one is A-7 in real life. the ink colors are:

Fired Brick, Tumbled Glass, Mustard Seed, Crushed Olive, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Dried Marigold, Picked Raspberry, Mowed Lawn. the Nick Bantock colors are: Rose Madder & Cerulean Azure. the sentiment was done on a scrap of DCWV in Versafine. 

Butterfly Text

In an effort to start at least inking some of these piles of new stamps, this one is from the Penny Black clear set called Social Butterfly its heat embossed in some butter zing powder on vellum. that pearl is from recollections. the vintage dictionary page was run through an cuttlebug folder that I had inked with some mellow moss ink. then I added some crushed olive distress marker over that. So, its a little countersunk into the paper which it almost cut it. it is glued very carefully on the back side. the front was also color dusted with some old paper distress.

that hand held punch was still out from something I did this morning and so, it was used again. I think it is my "go-to" for a hand held punch. and I finally did an Sequin Sneeze card. I had said that to hubs earlier when I was showing him something else on line and said. see, every time I try to do that with a few sequins it looks like the card sneezed. ( the look is growing on me & I have collected a whole bunch of colors of new sequins to supplement the vintage finds I have) these particular ones came in a test tube from something called ruby hazel? something like that, tossed the packaging. the sentiment's from the Gina K designs set inside out. this one is 5 1/2" square in real life on Always Artichoke with a scrap of handmade paper. 

Happy Mail {continued}

You may have seen that Wishful Bunny card I did a week ago with an Unity stamp and it ended up winning their friends with flair challenge. So, today 25 brand new stamps arrived in my mail box from them as the loot from that. and I squealed when I spied the camera stamp from the June Smak Kit. whooo :) you really should check out their blog.  

So, it had to be inked right up, as I had time while the burlap was drying. the watercolor paper was colored with Heidi Swapp color shine ( blush ) and tap water and the camera was over stamped with some India Ink Black. the edges were later painted with vintage photo distress paint. The metal ruler charm is from Tim Holtz and the fiber is some Karen Foster scrappers floss. 

This one is 6" square in real life, the sentiment is from the Ippity set Love in return, its stamped on some cream cardstock with Versafine then was color dusted with some Distress tattered rose ink the Smile is from Stampendous ( same treatment ) the lace is vintage, the staples are from Tim holtz as is the film strip ribbon. the hand held punch is from SU. and the base is textured Bazzill. I know there was an mix challenge yesterday that had something to do with a parade of repeated images but, I cannot remember if you had to stamp the parade or not.